crickets everywhere!

[jacobsracing]

okay...not sure how this one happened. Must have left a few in the enclosure thinking Mulligan ate em.

I lifted up a rather large log and out came about 30 or so very small crickets. Looks like they bred in the cage.

Should I empty out the contents/substrate?

Will these little buggers chew on my boy?

If I let them get bigger...Mulligan should eat em. My concern is that the "infestation" will get out of hand. What is the breeding cycle for crickets?

I gonna have to spend another small fortune in substrate!!

 

[mr.tegu]

I DONT KNOW OF THE BREEDING CYCLE FOR CRICKETS AND IM NOT SURE HOW BIG YOUR TEGU IS BUT HAVING BUGS RUN AND JUMP AND CRAWL ALL OVER YOUR TEGU ALL THE TIME MAY BE A LITTLE STRESSFULL I WOULD THINK, MAYBE SOME HOW GET AS MANY AS YOU CAN OUT AND KEEP IN A BUCKET OR SOMTHING TO FEED TO HIM LITTLE BY LITTLE

 

[DaRealJoker]

try to avoid feeding crickets in the cage. Use a feeding place out side of his enclosure. A big tupperware bin works well. The crickets can nip the tiny tips off tails and toes. The crickets don't have to be very big to do so. Aswell crickets poop. And poop rots, causing a place for mold to grow. Mold is especially dangerous to tegus and is all around dangerous to humans too. I'm told it's also bad to feed in the enclosures as they develope a territorial agression. I'm told this is more specifically called "food aggression".

 

[RehabRalphy]

My first "lizard" was a water newt. I left crickets in the cage over the night, and in the morning the crickets chewed holes in his back.

So my assumption, they could do some damage, but mainly stress to your tegu.

Conclusion: Feed outside the cage 8)

 

[mr.tegu]

I agree like i stated earlier, excessive insects do add stress to tegus and monitors. In the wild they have to search like crazy to find just a few insects. Its not to often they end up in a coleny of crickets. As far as feeding in a seperate enclosure i dont do this, I know its reccomended but i feed in the morning when my tegu is still sleeping, And i remove any left over food at night when he/she is off to sleep for the night.

 

[argus333]

put in a good size water bowl and all the crickets will jump in and drown themselves, they always do.

 

[Beazer]

For future referrence on escaped crickets. If you get a lot of escaped crickets, tokay geckos are awesome pest controllers lol. I have a tokay in my office room and it hides behind the bookshelves. I spray water on accasion at him when i see him or in his area so he gets a drink and i leave water in a bowl out in his favorite area. Hes been doing great for over a year now.
He escaped one time and I wasnt able to catch him and didnt feel like ripping apart the room so I let him live there. I even put pothos around for him if he ever wants plants to go in lol.


-Jon DeLong